The field of the invention is systems and methods for magnetic resonance imaging (“MRI”). More particularly, the invention relates to systems and methods for labeling.
Typical MRI scanning procedures rely on the MRI system operator to input unique identifying characteristics of the subject or object being scanned. This information is then normally encoded into header information of the digital images generated by the scan. In various scenarios, however, this information may not be input, may be input incorrectly, or may need to be subsequently anonymized. Additionally, this identifying information only stays associated with the images as long the images remain in an image format that allows such header information to be associated with the image data, such as with DICOM-format images. If the images are converted to another format, the pertinent information may be lost.
There remains a desire to provide a form of subject or object labeling that does not rely on image header information. For example, when scanning phantom objects (e.g., for quality control purposes, scanner characterization purposes, patient simulations), there is rarely a rigorous identification process analogous to a medical record number for patients. Furthermore, there may be multiple phantoms that all give similar image characteristics and therefore cannot be simply differentiated by their image characteristics. Having some standardized method to identify the object as a phantom, and which phantom in particular, could be beneficial for automated post-processing evaluations or other image quality analysis methods.
Similarly, it would be desirable to have a method of uniquely identifying human subject scans, in addition to personal medical record numbers tagged in the digital header information, which would help resolve issues when patient information is input incorrectly. Such a method would also preferably provide an anonymized reference code compatible with image anonymization procedures.